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Xilec Broadband

Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 2:15 pm
by aebrown
In this post, tsheffield made us aware of a company called Xilec Broadband, with whom the Church has arranged to give us comparative options for broadband providers in our respective locations. Since this information came at a good time for our stake, I decided to give it a try. I'll give a report here on my experience so far, and follow up when we are done.

Our stake is adding a broadband connection to a building that currently has no connection, under the authority of the 26 March 2008 PBO Letter. I went to the Xilec website and filled out the simple web form. Within a day I got a phone call and follow-up e-mail. The Xilec rep gave me the following information:
  1. In my area, there are two reasonable ISPs. He gave me installation costs, monthly fees, options for internal wiring, etc.
  2. I had previously contacted Qwest (the local phone company that is one DSL provider). They had quoted me a price for a dedicated phone line in addition to the DSL service (since the Meetinghouse Internet policy prohibits us from using existing phone lines for a DSL connection). The Xilec rep let me know of an option for a standalone DSL connection that does not require an actual phone line, which will save us $50 installation and $24/month.
  3. Xilec will take care of placing the order and coordinating the installation with the FM Group (I simply supplied contact info for the FM Group). There is no cost to our stake for this service.
So far I am pretty happy with the service. Saving the one-time and monthly costs for the unneeded phone line is huge, and I never would have known about it if I hadn't worked with Xilec.

Our installation is supposed to happen late this week or early next week. I'll report back on that part of the process next week, but I thought it might be helpful for me to post on my experience to this point.

Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 5:52 pm
by Mikerowaved
Thanks for a great post, Alan. Our Stake is investigating ISP's for meeting house connections and look forward to any follow-up information you (or others) might offer.

Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 7:50 pm
by russellhltn
One thing I'd check on is to see what rates you might quality for.

A more expensive ISP might actually be cheaper if they'll let you sign up at a residential rate.

When I set up the FHC, I was able to get residential DSL rates on a business phone line. That's saved the church a nice sum of money. I can't do that now (they changed the rules), but the old residential rate is still cheaper then today's business DSL rates, so we're sticking to our old plan.

Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 8:52 am
by aebrown
Alan_Brown wrote:Our installation is supposed to happen late this week or early next week. I'll report back on that part of the process next week, but I thought it might be helpful for me to post on my experience to this point.
Well, the installation is complete; here is (as Paul Harvey would say) the rest of the story.

The DSL installation didn't go quite as expected. Qwest (our DSL provider) was scheduled to come on Thursday, and they did arrive (but in the evening). A mechanic from the FM Group was kind enough to meet the Qwest technician, even though the FM Group's regular hours are 6:00am-3:00pm. Unfortunately the Qwest guy was not really prepared and had to get some additional parts and come back the next day.

But the DSL stand-alone line did get installed on Friday to the demarcation point. The FM Group had identified which line went to the clerk's office, so I connected the DSL line to that internal line at the punch panel. The DSL modem connected right away (using software supplied by Qwest to activate the account). So the Qwest technician was a bit flaky, but the DSL service itself has worked smoothly.

There were further adventures, but that will have to be explained in another thread, since this thread regards Xilec Broadband, which only deals with getting the broadband connection into the building. I will simply conclude by mentioning that Xilec did follow up with a phone call on Friday to make sure everything was going well, and when they found that Qwest was a day late, the Xilec rep offered to make some calls. But I said I didn't need that unless the installation didn't occur as promised that day. Since the installation did happen, there was no need.

So all in all, I would recommend that you use Xilec. You have nothing to lose -- they will present you with broadband options and help with the coordination of installation, but if you can find better prices or options elsewhere, you are under no obligation.

Xilec and internal wiring

Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 2:06 pm
by rdkent
Alan,
In your post you indicated that you connected the DSL line at the punch panel to the internal line that went to the clerk's office. Does your building only have one unit in it, or are you just running the DSL modem and the firewall in one unit's office and distributing the connection from there to the other unit offices? Was that part of the Xilec recommendations?

If this belongs in a different thread, please help me identify where it should go (I didn't see any existing thread that seemed to apply).

Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 2:56 pm
by aebrown
rdkent wrote:Alan,
In your post you indicated that you connected the DSL line at the punch panel to the internal line that went to the clerk's office. Does your building only have one unit in it, or are you just running the DSL modem and the firewall in one unit's office and distributing the connection from there to the other unit offices? Was that part of the Xilec recommendations?

If this belongs in a different thread, please help me identify where it should go (I didn't see any existing thread that seemed to apply).
Xilec doesn't make recommendations as to how you do specific wiring (or at least they didn't for me). Rather they provide options, pricing, contact information, and ordering assistance for various ISPs.

However, to answer your question, the Meetinghouse Internet program requires one shared broadband connection per building. That means one DSL line to one DSL modem (or one cable modem or other broadband options) that connects to one Church-managed Firewall. The Stake Technology Specialist (in consultation with the local FM Group) decides where that should best be located.

From the firewall, the STS (again with the FM Group) can connect to computers in a variety of ways. There are 7 ports on the firewall, so you can run Cat5/5e/6 cables to each administrative computer, or you can install one or more switches or routers or wireless access points as fits your budget, time constraints, and security requirements.

Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 4:56 pm
by SheffieldTR
It's great to hear that Xilec is working out as well as we had planed on!
Thanks

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 10:42 am
by aebrown
Alan_Brown wrote:There were further adventures, but that will have to be explained in another thread....
The story of the internal networking issues is contained in this thread.

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:44 pm
by russellhltn
I'll put Xilec down in the "your millage may vary" category. I did talk to them and they were good enough on the phone. I did find they get their money from the service provider they refer you to - so I guess it's along the lines of a sales commission. However, they don't have something with everyone. They pretty much admitted they were weak in my area. In my case they provided 3 options, none of which were the obvious (local phone company or Time-Warriner Cable company). So I still had to do my own local leg work.

The most interesting option was via Sprint which the Church apparently can get a discount with. The price is competitive with my best option below. Interesting because if we run into problems with connecting a site, it should work out. Can't ask for simpler install then wireless. :cool:

But so far my best option is shaping up to be the local cable company. With proper documentation, they will sell us service at residential rates, or $44.95/month for 5Mbit. That's better then the phone company's commercial rates of $69.99/month for dry DSL. The hard part is going to be pulling a cable into the building.

So my take on them is to go ahead an use them. You might learn something new. But also do your own research.